Dirty pitch caused infections
Players’ cuts and grazes ‘‘almost always’’ got infected at Waitohi Domain, once the home of Picton rugby.
The pitch was built on top of a rubbish dump, and players knew they’d often come away with more than just the usual scrapes.
So when the team decided to up sticks and move across town to the new multimillion-dollar Endeavour Park, there was little fuss or regret. But now the town must decide what to do with Waitohi Domain. The council is leaning towards concreting over a third of the site for a truck park, with a heli-pad in one corner.
Marlborough district councillor Geoff Evans played at the sharp end of the scrum for Marlborough’s Old Boys against Waitohi seniors on the field in the 1960s.
Waitohi were hard men, he said, but the biggest risk was the park itself. ‘‘We all knew any cuts and grazes we got would almost always get infected,’’ Evans said.
As with rugby and recreation parks across the country, Waitohi was created on top of a rubbish dump. Shards and specs gradually rising to the surface carried the bacteria sparking infection for the sportsmen.
Councillor Nadine Taylor said the future for the domain was a hot topic in the town, and a council survey on the subject had attracted more than 60 suggestions in a few days.
‘‘People have various ideas for the truck park and for Waitohi. The public consultation will be very worthwhile and we’ll get a number of ideas from it. I’m heartened by that. When you have a nice big space near the centre of town it’s important we get everybody’s feedback,’’ Taylor said.
‘‘We only get to use it once, so it’s really important we gather up all the ideas.’’
Some submissions feared the industrial use of the land, and asked why Port Marlborough did not ensure it had suitable truck parking on its existing land.
Picton residents had a lot of attachment to the land as a green space, according to councillor David Oddie, who also questioned having green space in the centre of Picton ‘‘industrialised’’.
The truck park concept emerged because trucks travelling south were no longer using the Riverlands Roadhouse Truck Stop, just south of Blenheim, due to the earthquake-damaged highway to Christchurch.
Transport companies had indicated they would continue to use the alternative route even after SH1 opened because they needed certainty in their timetables and the quake-shaken road closures and delays were still likely.
Council assets manager Richard Conington said the truck park would use 7300 square metres of the 23,000sqm site and would be sited at the high end of the ground around where the old clubrooms were based. The remainder, where the rugby fields were sited, would be retained for ponding in potential flooding.
Conington said the cost was likely to be about $400,000 for a basic fenced truck park. Amenities such as toilets for a more permanent truck park would push the cost out another $60,000.
The North Canterbury Trans- port Infrastructure Recovery alliance was prepared to put up $100,000, and Port Marlborough was in the mix with a cash lease offer to use the site ‘‘post SH1 opening’’. Council would likely have to maintain other facilities, depending on lease deals that could emerge. The bare minimum without toilet facilities was the council’s preferred option.
The heli-pad was not in that costing and no consent had been sought for it yet. If the whole proposal won favour with the public and the council, the heli-pad consent would be applied for and held by the council.
Councillors Terry Sloan, Mark Peters and Taylor were given authority to take on board public preferences and approve the truck park in line with tender, valuation and potential lease constraints.
The survey on the council website closes on January 7.